Shop Small on Saturday

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas has long been associated with the shopping season. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation changing the date of Thanksgiving to the second-to-last Thursday of November to extend a holiday shopping season that would have been hampered by a late Thanksgiving.

There was pushback, however, with less than half of the then-48 states adopting the shift. So, in 1941 Congress passed a joint resolution that standardized the holiday nationwide as the fourth Thursday in November; President Roosevelt signed the resolution on December 26, 1941.

Through the years, the holiday shopping season remains important to our economy. More recently, since 2010, in the interest of boosting local commerce, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving has been designated as Small Business Saturday®. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution in support of this new tradition the following year.

Small businesses are a very important part of our economy, providing for 1.8 million jobs in Michigan in 2015 – almost half of all Michigan employees.

Here’s just a sampling of the many Southeast Michigan communities supporting Small Business Saturday:

• Berkley,
• Birmingham,
• Dearborn,
• Detroit,
• Dundee,
• Ferndale,
• Howell,
• Milford,
• New Baltimore,
• Rochester,
• Royal Oak, and
• Westland.

Oakland County sponsors a contest where shoppers at qualifying businesses have a chance to win the $5,000 prize.

Shopping spaces also help to create quality places around the region. While you are out holiday shopping, take a look at many of the SEMCOG Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) projects that help improve streetscape, green infrastructure, pedestrian and bike travel in many Southeast Michigan communities.

So, remember to Mark Your Calendars to Shop Small on Saturday, November 30. In the meantime, enjoy your turkey, fixings, and my favorite – pumpkin pie!